阮玲玉的〈一剪梅〉。1931年。

開頭以為是齣純綷風花雪月的文藝片。傳說中傾國傾城的阮玲玉在戲中並不起眼，以21世紀的審美來說不算大美女，不過是個和范曉萱有幾分似的嬌小中國女子罷了。近鏡時才發覺她的眼窩很適合上煙熏妝，配上小小的臉、櫻桃狀的嘴唇、表情多多的演技，是黑白默片女主角的上佳人選。另一女主角林楚楚也不是頭等漂亮，樣子像女性化一點的任劍輝，動靜粗手粗腳的卻似足我們的楊千樺——可能是演軍官女兒的關係吧。反而男主角高占飛——畫著Jack Sparrow的眼線，穿上Robin Hood的小短褲——相當的俊秀挺拔。

情情愛愛一輪，沒想到劇峰一轉，變成了逼上梁山加Zorro式鋤強扶弱的戲碼，連黑斗篷都出來了！（查過才知此劇改編自莎士比亞的《維洛那二紳士》。）全劇保持半自謔的幽默感，鏡頭編排有心思，採了不少實地外景（我貪婪的注視那消失了的舊中國），中英文字幕更有文學的水平。可以看出當時的電影製作水準不低——無怪乎張愛玲還在上海時喜歡去看電影。推薦！

Urban Legend

I am walking. Uphill. This girl ahead turns around, flashing her stick-out thumbs left and right before her friend. I return to my thoughts. A moment later I notice her again, walking along the curb, brushing her thumb along.

"She's not hitchhiking is she?" I'm surprised, "It's the middle of the city!" In a neighborhood known for its walkability no less. That's when I start checking her out. She's very slender, in a petite brown leather jacket, tight pencil jeans, brown leather boots. Early 20's, I suppose. She's pretty of course, with that confidence. She ties her blonde hair at the back of her head in a neat little bun. Urban and slick - and doesn't like to walk?

Her friend, not as pretty and not a believer in urban hitchhiking / self-confident spontaneity, urges, "The bus is here". Surely, the bus stop is right here. But she turns and exclaims lightly, "He stopped!", jumping a bit. I look up. A black SUV pulls up at the interaction just ahead. Now I have to suspend my belief - a real hitched ride in the middle of the freaking city, stuff of an urban legend! She runs up, excited and pleased. Her friend follows in a distance in her long dark hair and long dark gypsy skirt. Some commotion in the black SUV. A guy comes out from the driver's seat. Tall, buff, head-shaved, and kind of handsome, like one of those army guys just rotated back from abroad (saw "Hurt Locker" the day before). I foresee a scene of "hey ladies", meaningful silence, and the necessary flirting. But then the guy runs across the street, and disappears into a house.

It takes a moment for me to react to it, having suspended my belief. It takes her a second to recognize the moment too; a vague expression fills her face. Her friend looks at her and quips sarcastically (or helpfully to disarm the moment's embarrassment), "How's that working for ya?" I can't stand to watch her face. Luckily I have my music player wired to my ears (not on), and I am already walking past them. I look straight forward, faking absorption.

Now they are behind me at the intersection. As we are waiting to cross, I hear the friend says, "... almost there to the top. A few blocks at the turn and we are there." That's where I am heading too - and I am only too happy to walk in such nice weather (besides, I don't have a ride either). "Walking is good for you..." her friend adds in good faith. She murmurs a vague "Yes it is...", still cheerful. Girls always reserve some room in her heart for hope (as in stomach for dessert). And the prettier the girl, the bigger her heart tends to get. The bus zips by.

美色

記得冰心用「男士」筆名說過，女人的美有三種：

1. 一看美，再看也美的標準美人
2. 一看驚艷，再看卻越看越不美的俗艷美人
3. 初看平淡，再看三看卻越看越耐看的氣質型美女

教訓當然的不是天生麗質難自棄的，就儘量去當個氣質美女。讀時小小年紀的我，已心神領會。

到人越長越熟，經驗卻告訴我，女人的美應分這麼三種：

1. 人見人愛、車見車載的可人兒：這種女生通常活潑而平易近人，認識她的男人都自覺有點機會——就算被拒也不會太傷，所以越是疼惜她、越願意為她效勞。因此美貌對於這種女生很值得，是 MVB： Most Valuable Beauty。
2. 美不可凜的女神：雖然給人高不可攀的感覺，配上自知自重的性格（我想到的例子是王菲和吳倩蓮，年紀小一點卻一時想不到...），容易得到男男女女的敬愛。
3. 略具姿色卻姿態不定的小美女：看似可愛，看似與眾不同，卻搖擺不定，忽陰忽晴，不知怎樣自處的。這種美色不為女主人帶來好處，甚至可以是負累：因為別人對她的美有期待，卻往往搞不清她的性格而把她解讀為「難搞」、「自以為美」、「空洞」。

我以為這種分法的教訓是：姿色需要配以相應的好性格來才會為美女帶來正面的能量。正所謂：「女人不因美麗而可愛，而因可愛而美麗。」（所以世上沒有醜女人，只有不可愛的女人。）

不知這種見解可會比冰心老前輩世故點？

Fancy a blue telephone on your head?

I love this interpretation of the "Telephone". A bit blusey. Sounds better than the original to my ears.

The other night we downloaded Poker Face on Rock Band. The whole gang of us looped it like 4 times on a roll in an attempt to get the rapping right. So fun.

The weird thing is that I don't even like her songs that much. But when a tune's played over and over everywhere, you somehow get inexplicably excited upon hearing it again -- it's like your mind recognizes that it's suddenly plugged into popular culture and succumbs to it without checking with you.

Here's Lady Gaga as the real-life Mad Hatter.

Did Walt Disney off Tim Burton's head?

... in Harry Potter execution style, Chronicles of Narnia execution style, Lord of the Ring execution style?

I can't come up with another explanation for Tim Burton to turn the curious Wonderland to this dull "Underland". And I can't help but think of...

Six impossible things in Wonderland:

1. "The" Alice. We are all Alices. And Alice could be Ada, Mabel, or her sister. Alice could also be dreaming this, or being dreamed of.
2. "The" path pre-told on a scroll. To wonder in Wonderland is to endlessly meander in the land of undecipherable, unknowable mysteries. If you can predict what's going to happen next (like you could in the movie), it isn't Wonderland.
3. Slaying or flesh eating of any kind. All the animals and even plants could talk. It's much too confusing to even begin to think about turning these creatures into food. The queen only yells "Off with their heads!" as an expression of her uncontrollable passion. No head ever flies off. The Jabberwocky is a long riddle, not an actual dragon. You can try to solve it; there's no point in slaying it.
4. Not being confused about proper manners, or laughing at them. How else can you learn who you are while navigating in a world of unanswerable puzzles and unreasonable demands? How else can you fight boredom on a hot summer day?
5. Action before reasoning. After all, that's how one keeps one's head amidst all the madness.
6. Mad Hatter dancing like a poor Michael Jackson impersonator.

And these six impossibilities (maybe minus the last), together with Tim Burton's imagination and seeing Johnny Depp in 3D, are precisely the reasons why we were all excited about the movie before it came out, and got invariably disappointed after seeing it.

I did like Anne Heatherway's rendition of the "white queen". She was more Alice than Alice herself.

陳巧文，you've completely missed the point

陳巧文撰文大談社民聯某些大佬向自發衝鐵馬的市民抽水，

卻忘了提，元旦遊行的主題是普選，而不是衝門口、送棺材。

經他們一衝撞，遊行訴求迅速化為話題，

因此現實是：四五行動和社民聯共同抽了當日為普選而來的遊行人仕的水。

近期大家都討論八十後如何如何。

八十後是個統稱，裡面有很多股不同的聲音力量。

相對五四行動對衝的表達方式，我更欣賞反高鐵關注組以記錄、對談、苦行等和平而革新的方式，鼓勵市民大眾反思發展的硬道理。

畢竟，民心所向才是逼使政權反省的最有效辦法。

相比起反高鐵關注組，四五行動和社民聯的沖撞式抗爭顯得過時。

江山代有人才出。一代人自有一代人應做和創造之事。八十後對2010後社會的啟示，應不止反建制的浪漫激情。


推薦閱讀：鄭家駒的香港「無地方」（一）、（二）、（三）、（四）、（五）

2010

過去一年有喜有憾。

喜的是完成了醞釀幾年的長篇。

理解了自身和環境的狀況。

Twitter上位，幫助伊朗弱勢社群對抗獨裁政府。

憾的是轉行未成，革命仍需努力。

全球暖化繼續全速進航。

本地人權被逐步侵蝕而慶祝升溫。

Business as usual.

有個實驗預測幼稚園小朋友將來的成就。

給小朋友每人一粒糖，保證若果他們三分鐘內不把糖吃掉，便再賞一粒。

立即吞掉糖的小朋友是享樂短視主義者，或是悲觀/不信任主義者，難成大器。

自制忍足三分鐘的小朋友懂得 delayed gratification 的道理，有忍一時而做大事的潛質。

把地球村所有居民看成一個小朋友，他的未來可想而知。

真的。有得食就笑，無得食就叫，遇弱者欺凌，遇強者畏縮，無知覺則漠然，受傷病則痛哭，和幼稚園小朋友有乜分別？

用鬧劇的角度看大痛之事，反而更有力量面對挑戰。蔡東豪在〈殘酷的現實〉(壹周刊 2009.12.24) 提到「史托迪矛盾」：「…懂得分辨自己能控制和不能控制的事情… 一方面面對長遠目標…堅持信念，另一方面以實際態度和長久紀律去接受短期痛苦…」

如此，便能「站在雞蛋的一方」而有鐵蛋的堅韌。

我已準備好面對新的一年。

Resolutions 已寫好。只差書單還未落實，想想新一年可看的書，很興奮。

2010。科幻故事裡的年份。字體寫出來多好看。

To conversations, connections, and sci-fi magic!

《十月圍城》大氣

終於出了部大片有大片的格局與卡士，亦有大片的深度。

電影文氣流暢，各人物褪變層層遽進，同時整體維持緊湊。片中的演員，梁家輝胡軍不用說，其他卡士從謝霆峰到甄子丹到黎明李宇春，都入型入格，各有發揮。最入木三分的是演商人父親的王學圻，他和兒子的關係實是電影的核心，也是片中最深刻的一段沖擊與感情。

打片掛帥，打鬥場面當然不能欺場。港式市井對抗，人力車代替飛車戰馬，冬瓜米袋瓷器晾衫竹皆成武御，遙應了家燕姐在《食神》中的經典對白：「好摺凳！摺凳的奧妙之處，它可以藏在民居之中，隨手可得，還可以坐著它來隱藏殺機，就算被警察抓了也告你唔入，真不愧為七大武器之首！」李宇春失家報仇無奈悲壯，甄子丹與對手街霸式的格鬥拳拳到肉，黎明書生式對決飄逸慘淡，皆藏心思。

全片最出色的地方，是巧妙地將平等民主這些已過度政治符號化的觀念提升至一個人文主義的層面。劇中眾人皆有參與血戰的個人理由價值，而且最終都為個人的價值付出相當的代價，民主人權不是吃飽飯賺到錢以外的錦上添花，而是柴米油鹽，是生活的基本尊嚴。

《十月圍城》有望成經典。據說導演陳德森等了十年，經歷幕後老闆自殺，主要演員易角，才終於籌得資金拍成這部電影。港片打來打去拍了幾十年，還能找個新鮮本土歷史角度拍出深意，我們理應驕傲。

就算是為了那世紀初一比一的中環風貌也值回票價，去看吧。